And Here Comes the High-Powered Bachelorette Party!!!

The bachelorette party is a centuries old tradition in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland Canada en the US. Up and until the 19^th century the party offered by the Maid of Honor to the bride to be was known as Hen Party to underline its gender boundaries. In 1800’s London hen parties were part and parcel of a well-organized wedding and competed in gloss and glitz. Amazingly their origins are very humble. They started during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution when women workers took leave upon marriage.

The last day of work the bride to be was paraded through the factory wearing a coat full of notes written by colleagues wishing her good luck. Most notes had sexual innuendos. When the parade was over, women workers would gather around the bride to be and toasted her with beer.  It is believed that the tradition entered the halls of the fine and old noble British families through a hat maker close enough to the Duchess of Northumberland to convince her to adopt the humble workers tradition on the occasion of the marriage of her cousin.

The Duchess was searching for an event that would make history and depart from the traditional bridal shower originating in 16^th century Holland as an alternative to the dowry system. And indeed, it did!! Once a hen party entered noble property it was copycatted throughout England passing then to the US and other former British possessions. For at least two centuries hen parties were just parties. But that was to change in the 1990s.  By then the impact of the 1970’s sex revolution and the fact that most young women were working coalesced to transform the bachelorette parties into an entertainment experience. Attempting to mimic men’s bachelor’s dinner, US young ladies opted for what now is a thriving industry worth $ 200 B worldwide: The Bachelorette weekend!!

This entails a fun tour to a fun place for the bride her maids, the maid of honor; her sisters and sisters in law and close friends. Depending on budget restrictions these tours can truly be engaging. Crystal cruise lines, for instance, can take the group through the Danube waters in a truly enchanting vessel that offers great dining and entertaining apart from dreamlike views. The price tag however is about US $2,000 per person. Las Vegas is the favorite destination for American wedding troupes. The lure of a city of sin where anything is possible and everything is supposed to be confidential pulls many young ladies to its premises.

New Orleans and New York effectively compete with Las Vegas while in Europe the undisputed bachelorette tour destination is Paris.  Short Cruises to the Greek Islands and the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia however seem to be growing fast as well as those having the Maldives Islands in the Persian Gulf as destination. All bachelorette tours include at least one dinning event; a dancing event and lots of drinks. Should you desire to get an idea of what goes on in these parties nowadays, jump into the closest movie theater to your home and watch Scarlett Johansson lead a roaring bachelorette troupe in the film Tough Night!!!